Caramel-y Banana, Peanut Butter, and Chocolate Bread Pudding - Baked: Occasions - Elvis's Birthday

Happy Birthday to Elvis Presley! While he is not a song artist that I listen to regularly I am familiar with his sound and many songs like the rest of the world. I am also aware of his favorite flavor combination of banana and peanut butter. I have more slowly started to enjoy this combination, even though I have always enjoyed bananas and peanut butter on their own.

Bread puddings are not something that I was ever served growing up and are not familiar. I had never made brioche before. I am being stretched in January as far as trying new to me baking skills. It's a good thing that I enjoy trying something new that I've never done before. The brioche itself took quite a bit of time (and butter) to make. I'm so glad I read the recipe before attempting to make it because the brioche had to dry out for a day before using it in the bread pudding and the dough had to rise overnight in the refrigerator before baking. I had to start this dessert several days ahead of when I wanted to serve it. For me, this makes the process more fun, as long as I have done my reading and am aware of the time involved. With this cookbook, I think I need to read the recipe a week before I want to serve it so I am sure to have adequate time.

I was very happy with how the brioche turned out when it was completed, I wasn't sure with adding so much butter to the dough. I'm really glad my Kitchen Aid mixer was up to the task. As with the other recipes I decided to again make only half a batch of the bread pudding, but I made a full recipe of brioche. So we had some with our dinner the night we roasted the turkey and had Jalapeno Popper Wonton Cups. It was rich and buttery and almost flakey for bread. It was so good, I wanted to turn it all into french toast, which I suppose is just a quick version of bread pudding anyway.

When all was said and done after all the simmering, baking, mixing, pouring, and baking again, I was a bit disappointed. This didn't have as much peanut butter flavor as I expected and the bananas were not very noticeable so the two flavors that I assumed would dominate this dish were not very prevalent. It is okay, but I think I would prefer using the brioche to make french toast. If you are a bread pudding fan then I would go ahead and give this recipe a try, if not then I think I would look for another peanut butter banana recipe to celebrate. You can find the recipe here at Baked Sunday Mornings along with thoughts from other bakers who have tried this recipe.

Timing: Recipe States: doesn't say, My Actual Timing: a few days
Servings: Recipe States: 8 very large servings, Servings For My Family: 9 servings (with a half batch)
Leftovers: I thought it was better on the second day.

Family Ratings:
Me: It was okay, better the second day, but not something I need to put in that much effort for again.
Hubby:
Big Man:
Bear:
Mr. T:

Will I repeat: Probably not the overall dessert, but I will make that brioche again.

What will I change: Not a thing.